Macquarie University Risk Culture Scale
About the Scale
This scale was developed by a multi-disciplinary team (risk governance and organisational psychology) based at Macquarie University. It consists of 18 survey items, suitable for employees, grouped into four factors. The research underlying the scale was funded by Macquarie University and the Centre for International Finance and Regulation.
It has been validated in numerous financial institutions using a range of methods and published in four separate peer-reviewed studies in top international journals*. This research suggests that when combined with well-designed risk management policies, frameworks and systems, favourable risk culture, as defined by this model, is likely to produce desirable risk outcomes. That is, desirable risk management behaviour will flourish and the organisation should achieve its objectives with few unwelcome surprises.
For more information about assessing risk culture, we recommend the following resources:
Auditing Risk Culture: A Practical Guide
Risk Governance: Biases, Blind spots and Bonuses, especially chapter 3.
The main authors of the scale are Elizabeth Sheedy and Barbara Griffin
Sheedy, E. A., Griffin, B., & Barbour, J. P. (2017). A framework and measure for examining risk climate in financial institutions. Journal of Business and Psychology, 32(1), 101-116; Sheedy, E., & Griffin, B. (2018). Risk governance, structures, culture, and behavior: A view from the inside. Corporate Governance: An International Review, 26(1), 4-22; Sheedy, E., Zhang, L., & Tam, K. C. H. (2019). Incentives and culture in risk compliance. Journal of Banking & Finance, 107, 105611; Sheedy, E., Garcia, P., & Jepsen, D. (2019). The Role of Risk Climate and Ethical Self-interest Climate in Predicting Unethical Pro-organisational Behaviour. Journal of Business Ethics, 1-20.
Accessing the scale
To assist organisations in their risk governance, the university is making the scale available for internal, non-commercial use under Creating Commons 
. This means that organisations can use the entire scale, or its individual factors, as they are, to assess their own risk culture through an employee survey. The results can be reported internally and to relevant external stakeholders such as regulators with appropriate attribution to Macquarie University.
Those wishing to use the scale commercially (e.g. as part of a consulting practice) should approach the university for a commercial license.
These days it is important, for government funding, to demonstrate that research is being used to improve industry practices and outcomes. We, therefore, ask that you provide us with some contact details before you download the scale. We may contact you in future to find out whether you have used the Macquarie University Risk Culture Scale, and whether this was helpful for your risk governance.